Bittersweet

I received a bittersweet email yesterday. Early in the year I applied to participate in a Professional Development workshop centered around math through a Math - Science Partnership grant our district received. The focus is implementing our new math curriculum with the current and future state standards (something I am VERY opinionated about). When submitting my application I explained that I could only be in cohort C due to child care constraints and many of the questions about how I taught things this year had the theme of - "I am currently on maternity leave; however while I was teaching this year I..." (I felt I needed to explain why my answers only addressed the first quarter objectives.) As a result, I figured being expected into the program was a LONG SHOT, why would they want to invite someone who would be an emotional basket case these two weeks to a professional development that is competitive enough to need an application process and not just principal nomination?

The email that I received yesterday said that I had been accepted into cohort C and we would start on August 2nd at 8:30 AM. My initial thought was - OMG, my babies first day of daycare will be an all day experience and she will have to go for the entire week, every week, and until Christmas break. Then I remembered that we got Thanksgiving break too, so it would just be until then. A year ago I would have been jumping up and down for being accepted, then thought about how this will alter any current summer plans I have already made. It is amazing how quickly life changes with just a little push (or maybe a few minutes of deep breathing and intense pushing). This email was bittersweet. I am excited at the opportunity and honored to have been chosen, but am really not looking forward to August coming sooner than later.

Carly has hit a lot of major milestones in the past few days. While they have been WONDERFUL things to celebrate, they have also reminded me that she is growing up and that August will be here before she, Dave, and I realize it.